If you did a poll of NBA fans and asked them the dirtiest team of all time, the Detroit Pistons would likely take the top spot, though they only came in 6th in a recent list of the league’s dirtiest teams.
The Pistons have had this reputation going back to the Bad Boys days when hard fouls and occasional dustups were the norm.
Things happened in Detroit’s playoff battles with the Lakers, Celtics and Bulls that would get players suspended now but barely drew the referee’s attention back then.
The reputation of being a dirty team didn’t end with the Bad Boys, as the Pistons were then involved in the most infamous brawl of all time, the Malice in the Palace, though that was as much about the fans as the players.
The Pistons have always been a hard-nosed, blue-collar team that didn’t mind mixing it up, something that fans love. Dirty is really in the eye of the beholder, as I am sure fans of other teams have a different point of view about the Pistons’ physical play over the decades.
One publication tried to quantify the league’s dirtiest teams, and even though the Pistons were mostly lousy during this stretch, they were still near the top of the list, which is not surprising.
Are the Detroit Pistons a dirty team?
RotoWire recently ranked the dirtiest NBA teams over the last decade using a combination of fines and suspensions to come up with a score.
This is obviously flawed from the beginning, as you can get fined or suspended for a number of things that aren’t considered “dirty.” Drop the right word to the ref, get too many technical fouls or square up with someone on the court (ask Ron Holland) and you can get a suspension or fine, none of which is considered “dirty.”
You can get a fine for disparaging the refs after the game, and I’m pretty sure no fan would consider that dirty, at least not any Pistons fan.
It was interesting to see the Heat at the top of the list, as most people don’t equate “Heat Culture” with being dirty, but maybe they should.
The Pistons have certainly gained that reputation over the years, fairly or not, and a lot of NBA fans would likely name Isaiah Stewart as a “dirty” player even though I don’t think that is true.
Dirty players are ones that intentionally try to injure someone, flop for calls and do other sneaky things on the court, and there is nothing sneaky about what Beef Stew does. He plays hard, physical basketball, but I wouldn’t call him dirty.
But I’m a Pistons fan who has watched from the Bad Boys era, so I am used to the label and it’s one that most Detroit fans embrace if anything.